This course aims to equip IS research students with the necessary foundations and skills on theory building for Information Systems and approaches, methodologies and steps in theory-inspired design.

Specifically, this course aims to teach Ph.D. students:

1. How to follow a rigorous, systematic approach to creating and apply theory in major forms of information systems research, including theory-inspired design science.
2. How to find opportunities for the highest levels of contributions to top management and information systems journals that value highly original theoretical contributions and theory-inspired design science—such as Academy of Management Review, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Organization Science, and Journal of Consumer Research.
3. How to model, write, and explain theoretical contributions and theory-inspired designs.
4. How to better review and critique articles for theoretical contributions and theory-inspired designs.
5. To create the foundation for a project good enough to be submitted to and accepted at the highest levels of theory-building workshops (to be fast-tracked to top journals) - namely the Academy of Management Review Theory-Building Workshop at the Annual Academy of Management Meeting or the Journal of the Association for Information Systems Theory-Building Workshop at the Annual International Conference of Information Systems.